Chapter 4

The old lady did indeed know a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner in town. The man was originally from the same village as her, and of course, they had learned traditional Chinese medicine from the same master, making them like siblings.

However, the man’s medical skills were much better than hers. Thinking of him, the old lady’s eyes flashed, quickly concealing the deep meaning in them.

Hearing her granddaughter’s question, the old lady said: “What’s the matter, Nianbao, have you finally come to your senses? Do you want to learn medicine from your Zhang Grandpa?”

Her granddaughter had only learned the basics from her, only able to read medical books every day. The old lady hoped that her granddaughter would develop well, and she had always encouraged her granddaughter to go to Old Zhang’s place to learn.

It was just that her granddaughter had never been very enthusiastic about it before, because it was a long way to go. She didn’t expect her granddaughter to suddenly bring it up.

Jiang Nianzi was stunned. From the old lady’s words, it wasn’t hard to guess that the original character hadn’t really wanted to go to town to develop.

Swallowing the egg in her mouth, Jiang Nianzi organized her thoughts before saying: “Our family’s conditions aren’t good, I want to rely on my own abilities to make my mom and you live a good life.”

The old lady loved to hear this.

“Oh, my Nianbao still knows how to be considerate, Grandma didn’t love you for nothing.”

The old lady smiled so wide that her teeth were invisible: “Don’t worry, your Zhang Grandpa and Grandma have a good relationship, Grandma will take you to town tomorrow, and let you go to him to learn.”

Having received the old lady’s approval, Jiang Nianzi was in a particularly good mood.

Back home, she thought that Ding Hongmei and Jiang Cheng had gone out to work, and she had to prepare dinner to wait for them.

She was not in good health, and Ding Hongmei didn’t let her do these things.

But Jiang Nianzi always wanted to do something to help her family.

She was an excellent cook, and she was ready to show off her skills and give her family a delicious meal.

When she got to the kitchen, she found that the only seasoning they had was salt, and the lard was almost gone.

Besides pickled vegetable stalks, there were only pickled vegetable scraps.

Even a skilled woman can’t make a meal out of nothing.

The excitement she had felt was like a punctured balloon, deflating with a “poof.”

There was no other way, she could only make some corn porridge.

Jiang Nianzi boiled some water.

When Ding Hongmei and Jiang Cheng came back, they could take a hot bath.

In this era, people in the countryside weren’t so particular about hygiene, they didn’t bathe every day, but being dirty all the time, who wouldn’t be happy to be able to take a bath without having to boil water when they came back?

Ding Hongmei was washing herself while muttering to Jiang Nianzi: “Don’t do it next time, you’re not in good health, that water bucket is so heavy.”

“Yeah, Zizi, don’t do this in the future, wait for brother to come back, brother will do it.” Jiang Cheng echoed.

Jiang Nianzi was not used to others always giving without expecting anything in return, while she enjoyed it as a matter of course.

She just smiled in response, neither refuting nor agreeing.

After taking a bath, the family drank corn porridge.

This stuff didn’t fill you up, so Ding Hongmei and Jiang Cheng, who worked all day, were so thin that they were almost skeletal.

That was the reality of the times, there were many people in the village who couldn’t even afford corn porridge.

At the dinner table, Jiang Nianzi told Ding Hongmei about going to work at the traditional Chinese medicine clinic in town.

In Ding Hongmei’s opinion, those who studied medicine were all talented people.

Otherwise, her mother-in-law wouldn’t be so respected in the village, because everyone gets a cold or fever sometimes.

She practically agreed with both hands and feet.

–

The old lady was very efficient, the next day she took Jiang Nianzi out of the village and headed to the town.

Not knowing how good the relationship between the old lady and Zhang Grandpa was, Jiang Nianzi was a little nervous at first, worried that this would make her grandmother feel uncomfortable.

Unexpectedly, Zhang Grandpa actually liked her grandmother.

The traditional Chinese medicine clinic was on the main street in the center of town.

Seeing the old lady, Zhang Grandpa was so excited that he talked non-stop, offering her tea and snacks.

The old lady couldn’t stand his style, and she pulled a long face, saying: “Senior brother, I came here to let you let my precious granddaughter have a look around, don’t do all this nonsense.”

Seeing the old lady’s stern face, Zhang Grandpa didn’t get angry, he smiled and said: “Your granddaughter is my granddaughter, don’t worry, I will take good care of her.”

While he said this, his eyes never left the old lady.

Jiang Nianzi almost burst out laughing.

The old lady couldn’t stand his enthusiasm after all, and after handing Jiang Nianzi over to him, she found an excuse to leave.

Zhang Grandpa stood at the door, watching the old lady leave.

Jiang Nianzi wasn’t familiar with Zhang Grandpa, and she wasn’t afraid of revealing her true nature.

“Zhang Grandpa, do you like my Grandma?”

Hearing this, Zhang Grandpa’s smile didn’t diminish: “You really are a clever little girl.”

He reached out and tapped Jiang Nianzi’s head.

He knew that his junior sister had sent her granddaughter over to learn from him, but it also revealed her intention to make money.

Zhang Grandpa intentionally tested Jiang Nianzi’s medical skills, asking her several pathology questions in a row.

Jiang Nianzi not only answered them, but she also shared her unique insights.

She didn’t have any intention of hiding her skills, because to make money, she had to make the old man believe in her abilities.

She spoke fluently about various prescriptions, and the symptoms corresponding to every acupuncture point, all in a clear and concise manner.

The old man’s eyes lit up: “Not bad, not bad, you’re indeed your junior sister’s granddaughter.”

“Hehe, then Zhang Grandpa, can I see patients?”

“We’ll see how you perform.” Zhang Grandpa tapped Jiang Nianzi’s head.

In his opinion, Jiang Nianzi’s arrival was only beneficial to him, not harmful.

After all, she was his junior sister’s granddaughter, with this girl around, how could he worry about his junior sister not coming here?

The old man was making his plans, and Jiang Nianzi was doing the same.

Jiang Nianzi was so eager to make her first pot of gold, she didn’t expect it to come so quickly.

Zhang Grandpa had something to do in the afternoon, so he left the shop in Jiang Nianzi’s care.

A slender girl with a sallow complexion came in.

She was wearing a white Dacron shirt and black custom-made long pants, like the suit pants of later generations.

“Doctor Zhang, are you here?”

Jiang Nianzi walked around the screen and greeted her: “Zhang Grandpa is not here, I’m his newly hired assistant, and do you have any questions?”

The woman looked Jiang Nianzi up and down, noticing that although her features were extremely beautiful, her skin was dark, and she felt a little disappointed.

Even someone who studied medicine couldn’t save their own skin?

What could she save her from?

Zhao Fanghu sighed: “If Doctor Zhang isn’t here, I’ll come back later.”

Jiang Nianzi wouldn’t miss a chance to make money.

“Hey, comrade, please wait.”

Zhao Fanghu turned back, looking at her in confusion.

Jiang Nianzi, the social butterfly, immediately said: “You came to see Zhang Grandpa, you must have something you need to solve, right? I’m Zhang Grandpa’s most capable assistant, if you have any questions, feel free to ask me, maybe I can help you.”

Her words were sincere, her attitude kind, and Zhao Fanghu hesitated for a few seconds.

“Well… okay, I’m getting married next month, but look at my face, it’s always been yellow. I heard that traditional Chinese medicine can help, so I wanted to come and see Doctor Zhang, see if there’s any way to make my skin a little fairer.”

All women love beauty, especially Zhao Fanghu, who didn’t need to worry about food and clothing anymore.

Understanding that she just wanted to make her skin fairer, Jiang Nianzi said: “That’s easy, I have a way, and you don’t have to wait for Zhang Grandpa to come back.”

There was still a month before her wedding, it was enough time.

“Really?” Zhao Fanghu looked at Jiang Nianzi with doubt.

She was straightforward and asked directly: “If you have a way, why are you so dark?”

“Uh…”

Jiang Nianzi was speechless, how could she explain that she had only been here for a few days and hadn’t had time to take care of her skin?

She had loved beauty since she was a child, and besides treating illnesses and saving people, she had always been studying how to make herself more beautiful.

She thought back to her previous life, she was almost glowing white.

She couldn’t think about it, it made her heart ache.

Now she had gone back to square one, the most important thing was to make sure she had enough to eat.

After being stabbed, Jiang Nianzi still patiently explained: “Because I’ve been working in the fields recently, I got tanned, it won’t be long before I get back to my normal color.”

This reason was very convincing, even though it wasn’t true.

But Zhao Fanghu believed it.

After all, most people in Feng Province were dark, especially those who worked in the fields, because they worked under the sun all day long.

“So you really have a way to make me fairer?”

“Yes!” Jiang Nianzi nodded firmly.

Traditional Chinese medicine emphasizes internal regulation.

But it takes a long time to see results.

Jiang Nianzi focused on internal regulation and external application.

Time was of the essence, she could only make a simple and crude whitening cream, the effect was okay, but not as good as the whitening cream she made in her previous life.

Taking a mortar, Jiang Nianzi soaked the dried rose petals, took a few whitening herbs, mixed them according to the proportions, and then pounded them together.

After pounding for ten minutes, she finally got a yellow paste, and then she took a porcelain bottle and put the medicine in it.

“This is a whitening cream, you take it back and apply it to your face every morning and evening.”

Then, she grabbed a few herbs: “This is angelica, apricot kernel, and white angelica, use them to make tea to wash your face, I’ve already prepared it for you, use it about twice a week, it can shrink your pores and lighten the spots on your face.”

“Also, we don’t have red dates and white fungus here, if you have the means, you can buy some back to eat, red dates nourish blood and beautify the skin, white fungus moisturizes the lungs and whitens the skin, if you take it for a long time, the effect will be better, but don’t eat too much, just a moderate amount.”

Zhao Fanghu came here with the attitude of trying it out, but she didn’t expect her to actually come up with something.

Seeing this girl speak so confidently and calmly, Zhao Fanghu somehow felt that she could really become fairer.

“Okay, how much is it all together?”

Jiang Nianzi calculated the price according to the price list, she added some money to the whitening cream, which was the labor cost after deducting the cost of the medicine.

“Five yuan in total.”

No matter what era it was, medicine was always expensive.

In this era, a pound of pork was only 80 cents.

This could buy five pounds of pork.

Zhao Fanghu only earned 30 yuan a month, but fortunately, her family members all had jobs, and she could use her own money without having to contribute to the family.

In order to look better, Zhao Fanghu gritted her teeth and paid the money.

“If it works, I’ll come back to you, if it doesn’t work, hmph, you’ll see…”

Jiang Nianzi confidently nodded: “You don’t have to wait to see, believe me, you’ll become more beautiful.”

Women like to hear nice things, Zhao Fanghu heard this, covered her mouth and laughed: “I hope so.”

“By the way, remember to get a good rest, that’s the key.” Jiang Nianzi added.

This made Zhao Fanghu believe her words even more, because she hadn’t gotten a good rest lately, and she didn’t expect the other party to see it at a glance.

After seeing Zhao Fanghu off, Jiang Nianzi took the mirror in the shop and looked at herself, was she really that dark?

Hmm, she seemed to be quite dark.

No, she had to become fairer too!